Citizen Cartwright

Islamic State seen ‘hanging tough’ despite a year of bombing

After billions of dollars spent and more than 10,000 extremist fighters killed, the Islamic State is fundamentally no weaker than it was when the U.S.-led bombing campaign began a year ago, The Associated Press reports, citing assessments by the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency and others.

While the military campaign has prevented Iraq’s collapse and put the Islamic State under increasing pressure in northern Syria, the group remains a well-funded extremist army able to replenish its ranks with foreign jihadis as quickly as the United States can eliminate them, analysts say.

And the group has expanded to other countries, including Libya, Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula and Afghanistan.

Congress leaving for August recess, setting up fall showdown

Funding deadlines for federal agencies and highway programs are expected to collide within weeks of when the Treasury’s borrowing authority is to expire, says The Washington Post.

The Senate on Thursday passed a six-year transportation bill, but with funding only for the first three years.

Since the House already had left for the recess, the Senate then passed a three-month extension of the government’s authority to process highway and transit aid payments — the 34th extension since 2009.

Report: One in 5 U.S. adults has a physical or mental disability

And that translates to more than 50 million Americans, according to a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The National Academy of Medicine has issued reports showing that health and vitality aren’t keeping pace with longevity, says Dr. David Katz, director of the Yale University Prevention Research Center.

"Although medical advances help delay death, they cannot confer genuine vitality," Katz says. “The consequence of a longer life span, but a health span that is not keeping pace, is more years encumbered by chronic maladies and disabilities."

By eating well, being active and not smoking, as much as 80 percent of chronic diseases could be prevented, as well as the disability that accompanies them, Katz says.

Also in the news

Abductions hurt U.S. effort to train anti-Islamic State rebels in Syria

U.S. psychologists group may end role in questioning terror suspects

Senate Energy Committee votes to end 40-year ban on crude oil exports

Koch brothers seeking to remake public perceptions of their politics, family and business

Is free speech on campus at risk in an age of ‘empathetic correctness?’

Average worker loses 11 days of productivity a year to insomnia; some firms taking action

Note to readers

I’m not finding anything jaw-dropping in the news today to summarize for you, so I’m just going to post the top news and wish you a great day.

Top news

Taliban leader Mullah Omar died in 2013, Afghan officials say

How Germany prevailed in the bailout of Greece

Independent media battling on in Putin’s Russia

Obama rolls out initiative to increase U.S. supercomputer capability

Georgia segregating troublesome kids in Jim-Crow-era schools, probe finds

Former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore becomes 17th GOP presidential candidate

Longtime Pennsylvania Democratic Rep. Chaka Fattah indicted on corruption charges

September looks likelier for Fed’s first interest rate increase since financial crisis

Ways rising interests rates will affect you

Young people today are poorer than young people in the past, economists say

Banks to some hedge-fund clients: Use derivatives instead of stocks

Hackers tricking corporate email systems into wiring them large amounts of money

What’s Turkey up to?

In the days after reaching an agreement with the United States to combat the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, Turkey said it had vaulted itself into the battle against extremists menacing Turkish security.

But the extremists the Turks have in mind aren’t just members of the Islamic State. Instead, Turkey is at least as focused on crushing the Kurdish militants it has struggled to contain for many years.

Those opponents include not only armed groups, but also members of a pro-Kurdish political party in Turkey whose strong showing in recent elections cost Turkey’s president his parliamentary majority.

The situation risks damaging the U.S. alliance with Kurdish militias that in recent months have been America’s most effective partners on the ground in Syria against the Islamic State.

House conservative moves to oust Boehner

Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., on Tuesday filed a resolution to vacate the chair — an "extraordinarily rare" procedural move that represents the most serious expression of opposition to the speakership of Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, according to Politico.

Last month, the leadership briefly stripped Meadows of his subcommittee chairmanship over his votes, in a move supported by Boehner; but Meadows was reinstated after conservatives objected.

Some leading conservatives say Meadows’ move is a bad idea, and his proposal has been referred to a committee stocked with leadership loyalists from which it’s unlikely to emerge, says The Associated Press.

The acrimony within the Republican Party has been on “stark display” in Congress recently, notes AP.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, on Friday accused Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., of lying about votes.

And more Republican infighting broke out Monday night as an email from an aide to Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, suggested that conservative groups should take Lee’s fellow Republicans to task if they opposed him on a legislative maneuver to advance a repeal of Obamacare.

Say it ain’t so, New York Times

Frankly, one of my main tools in trying to understand what it is to be alive is to read The New York Times.

I value the context the Times provides and scour every story I read for those nuggets that promote understanding — which I then pass along to you.

So it concerns me to see the paper fall down on the job.

On Tuesday, I ran an item from the Times’ public editor — the paper’s ombudsman or reader’s advocate — saying the paper badly mishandled an article on Hillary Clinton’s email practices.

The article’s online headline read “Criminal inquiry sought in Hillary Clinton’s use of email.”

But it wasn’t really Clinton directly who was the focus of the request for an investigation, public editor Margaret Sullivan says. The issue was more general: whether government information was handled improperly in connection with Clinton’s use of a personal email account.

Sullivan faults the way the paper revised the story without being fully transparent about the mistake.

Norm Ornstein, respected resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, also criticizes the paper’s handling of the article in The Atlantic.

The Times subsequently has published an editor’s note acknowledging that the article was mishandled.

I'd like to see the Times quickly step up to own its mistakes. But I’m grateful, at least, that the Times has a public editor and readers who force the issue when necessary.

Also in the news

Obama to Africa: 'Nobody should be president for life'

U.S. spy for Israel to be released on parole; officials say there’s no link to Iran deal

Bipartisan push builds to revise 4 decades of tough sentencing laws

Court orders EPA to ease some limits on smokestack emissions that cross state lines

As raises become rare, companies are offering other perks

Millions of Americans reaping benefits of Obamacare, researchers say

Medicare and Medicaid turn 50: Challenges then and now

FDA approves stomach-filling balloon to aid weight loss